The Mother's Promise(65)

“Forget the thermometer,” he said.

“No, really. The forum said—”

“Fuck the forum,” he said. “We’re going to the hospital.”

Alice felt unexpected tears well in her eyes. “All right,” she said. “Just let me get my coat.”

The truth was, she probably did need to go to the hospital. And there was something about someone else taking control of the situation that was simply too hard to resist.





48

Zoe was going back to school. At least, she was walking in that direction. Who knew what would happen when she got closer. But she was doing as Kate taught her and not thinking about it. It had been a week since the debate. It would be hard to go back … but people did hard things every day. Lord knew, her mom had it tough this last week, after chemo. She’d been pretty sick, but she was managing.

As she got closer to the school, the street swelled with students, hoofing their way toward the school gates. Zoe’s heart began to race. A few people glanced in her direction but she focused on her feet. She didn’t want to see the exchanged glances, or hear the whispers. That’s her. That’s the girl. High school had been bad enough before she became the girl who peed her pants.

Was she actually going to do this? She needed to make a decision, and fast. The gates were approaching. She could keep walking, or she could go in. She took a breath, steeled herself. Then she headed in.

There was a collective gasp as she approached the front steps. She looked up long enough to map a course around the kids who sat there (several who’d been part of the debate) and then, with her head down, took the steps two at a time. She’d just reached the double doors into the building when she heard an explosion of giggles followed by a shriek from someone else and a Shhh! from a third party.

You can do this, Zoe told herself. Just don’t think about it.

In the hallway, conversations hushed as she passed. Zoe scanned the halls for Harry, but when she couldn’t find him, stared straight ahead. She slowed as she approached another group, waiting for someone to let her past. She noticed Seth in the circle, along with a few others including Cameron Freeman in the center. Cameron noticed Zoe and a faint smile appeared.

“Ooh no, I forgot what I was supposed to say…,” he said in a squeaky, girly voice. “Um … oh…”

There was a sound of plastic hitting the ground, then the slosh of water against the linoleum floors. The crowd jumped back. Cameron had dropped his water bottle. “Oops!” he cried. “I couldn’t hold it.”

Cameron laughed hysterically. Seth gave him a shove. “It’s not funny, man,” he said. Zoe stepped over the water and kept walking.

At her locker, she noticed Jessie Lee smiling at her. Jessie Lee had dyed the front of her hair purple now. The rest was black and cut so she looked like a shaggy rock star. She wore a black tank with a giant red tongue on the front and two strands of long, fake pearls.

“Zoe,” she said. “You’re back.”

Zoe nodded.

“I’m glad.”

“Thanks.”

Jessie Lee raked her hair back out of her eyes, but it immediately returned to its original position. “You know, once, in junior high, I stepped in dog shit and then walked it into the classroom. By the time I’d realized, Mr. Schmidt had noticed and was making everyone check their feet. Someone saw it was me and announced it to the whole class. Everyone called me shit-shoes for months.”

Zoe remembered Jessie Lee being called shit-shoes. She hadn’t known why. Jessie Lee had acted as if it hadn’t bothered her.

“No one says it anymore,” Jessie Lee continued. “Eventually people move on. Find someone else to torture. We all have to take our turn. Share around the suffering. It’s pretty funny, really. Shit-shoes.”

“I wonder what they’ll call me,” Zoe said.

“Dunno. Pee-stage doesn’t have quite the same ring.”

Unbelievably, Zoe laughed. Just a little.

“Zoe?”

Zoe turned to see Emily bustling up behind her. And just like that, wham! the panic was back in the center of her chest. “Hey. What’s up?”

Emily’s neck was craned and her gaze was fixed on the puddle on the floor. “Who did that?”

“Oh … you know…”

“It was Cameron,” Jessie Lee said.

“Fucker,” Emily muttered.

Zoe basked in that for a moment. It might have been the loveliest thing Emily had ever said to her.

After a moment, Em looked back at Zoe and sighed. “Zo, I feel terrible. About our stupid fight … about everything. I tried calling you, like, a gazillion times, but you wouldn’t pick up.”

“I didn’t want to know what everyone was saying about me,” Zoe said.

“Ha! As if anyone would say anything with your resident bodyguard hanging around.”

“My … what?”

A twinkle appeared in Emily’s eye. “Harry?”

“Harry is my bodyguard?”

“He’s been telling everyone that if they said anything about the debate when you come back today, they’d have to deal with him.” She grinned. “Clearly Cameron didn’t get the memo.”

Zoe couldn’t help it, a huge grin spread across her face.